Catch the Lightning
Encyclopedia
Catch the Lightning is a novel by Catherine Asaro
in the Saga of the Skolian Empire
, also known as Tales of the Ruby Dynasty. The novel won the 1998 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and the UTC Readers Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
on Earth in a time similar to the late 20th century. Althor Selei, a cybernetically enhanced Jag fighter pilot, is thrown into the alternate universe when his star fighter malfunctions. Tina Pulivok is a young Maya girl who has relocated to Los Angeles and is living on her own while she works as a waitress. She meets Althor late at night when she is returning home from work, and he is trying to figure out why he ended up on a planet that bears little resemblance to the Earth he expected. After Althor helps Tina escape an incident of gang violence, the two become fugitives.
Althor is not a typical officer; he is a member of the Ruby Dynasty, and as such he is heir to the throne of an interstellar empire called the Skolian Imperialate
. He is also a Rhon psion and can read moods, sometimes even thoughts, from other people. He is attracted to Tina, who seems to possess the same abilities - like seeks like.
During the night, while Althor stays with Tina, the Air Force
discovers his Jag star ship and takes it to a military installation. Specialists there examine it, unaware that a telepathic link ties the ship to the Jagernaut mind of its unknown (to them) pilot. As a result, they have no idea their tests are killing Althor.
With the aid of several Caltech students Tina knows, she and Althor infiltrate the military complex and regain the ship. As soon as Althor repairs its damaged systems, he and Tina return to his spacetime
. They are almost immediately captured by the group that sabotaged Althor's ship, after which they are sold as slaves to his enemies, in particular an Aristo named Kryx Iquar. Althor is stunned to learn that the person who betrayed him was his close personal friend, Ragnar Bloodmark, an influential Skolian admiral who helped raise him. After being held captive and tortured for several days, Althor and Tina escape with the help of his sentient Jag fighter.
In the end, Tina marries Althor, and together they discover the origin of Althor's ancestors, the Raylicans
, who were a displaced group of Maya
from Earth, relocated to the planet Raylicon during an earlier era by unknown aliens.
.
Asaro uses the two-part structure of the novel to explore the clash between different cultures, a theme inherent to the genre of planetary romance
as done by authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin
and Marion Zimmer Bradley
. The main character, Tina Pulivok, is a young woman of the Tzotzil Maya
from the Zinacantan
village of Nabenchauk on the Chiapas
plateau in southern Mexico
. Praised for the quality of her prose, Asaro builds the character's background in detail, including the use of scholarly texts and permission to include the translation of a Zincanteco poem from a Smithsonian treatise.
Tina is already experiencing the culture shock
of living in Los Angeles
after growing up in the Chiapas Highlands
, an idea further explored in "Ave de Paso,” a short story by Asaro which appeared in Fantasy: the Best of 2001. Althor is dealing with the clash between his universe and 1980s Los Angeles, which heightens the contrast between his and Tina's backgrounds, a conflict enhanced by his cybernetic differences from a normal human being. In the second half of the novel, when Tina travels to Althor's universe and time, the differences in their backgrounds become more pronounced, and the resolution of those differences within the context of the adventure forms a prominent theme of the novel. By using alien settings to consider what it means to be different, Asaro looks at conflicts inherent in different cultures and peoples on our own world.
Other works listed as similar to Catch the Lighting are Nekropolis by Maureen F. McHugh
, Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
, Master of Intrigue by Mary Ann Steele, Venus
by Ben Bova
and Heart of the Betrayed by Angela Verdenius.
, 1999) During that time, the colonies on other worlds are stranded, and those that survive lose their technology, becoming lost worlds
. Raylicon is the culture that survives, and in modern times the mysterious ruins of the Ruby Empire exist side by side with the modern cities of the Skolian Imperialate. The chapters set on Raylicon, which come late in the book, offer the most detail in the saga about the culture and history of world that originated both the Skolians
and their enemies, the Eubian Concord
, aka the Trader Empire
.
s from complex analysis
. The concepts derive from an extension of special relativity
into the complex plane
, as described in a paper Asaro published in the American Journal of Physics
. She also uses concepts of Hilbert spaces in sequences of Catch the Lighting, as detailed in the essay at the end of her book, Spherical Harmonic
.
Asaro's Nebula Award
winning novella, "The Spacetime Pool" further uses the ideas of Riemann sheets and branch points to structure the story.
.
The book won the Sapphire Award for best Science Fiction Romance of 1998 and has been described as an example of the best in science fiction romance literature, along with works by Lois McMaster Bujold
, Robin McKinley
, Sharon Shinn
, Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
, Emma Bull
, Mercedes Lackey
, Anne McCaffrey
, Barbara Hambly
, Joanne Bertin
, Patricia Briggs
, Patricia A. McKillip
, Lisanne Norman
and Elizabeth Marie Pope
.
Asaro has been accepting of the term romance despite the controversy and has expressed pleased surprise that her works attracted the interest of the romance community.
Catherine Asaro
Catherine Asaro is an American science fiction and fantasy author. She is best known for her books about the Ruby Dynasty, called the Saga of the Skolian Empire.- Biography :...
in the Saga of the Skolian Empire
Saga of the Skolian Empire
The Saga of the Skolian Empire, informally called the Skolian Saga or Tales of the Ruby Dynasty, is a series of science fiction novels, novelettes and novellas by Catherine Asaro, revolving around characters from an interstellar empire known as the Skolian Empire and their power struggle with the...
, also known as Tales of the Ruby Dynasty. The novel won the 1998 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and the UTC Readers Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Plot overview
The first half of Catch the Lightning takes place in an alternate Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on Earth in a time similar to the late 20th century. Althor Selei, a cybernetically enhanced Jag fighter pilot, is thrown into the alternate universe when his star fighter malfunctions. Tina Pulivok is a young Maya girl who has relocated to Los Angeles and is living on her own while she works as a waitress. She meets Althor late at night when she is returning home from work, and he is trying to figure out why he ended up on a planet that bears little resemblance to the Earth he expected. After Althor helps Tina escape an incident of gang violence, the two become fugitives.
Althor is not a typical officer; he is a member of the Ruby Dynasty, and as such he is heir to the throne of an interstellar empire called the Skolian Imperialate
Skolian empire
The Skolian Empire, or Skolian Imperialate, is one of the major empires in the science fiction novel series called the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro.The stories of Catherine Asaro mostly revolve around the Skolian Empire...
. He is also a Rhon psion and can read moods, sometimes even thoughts, from other people. He is attracted to Tina, who seems to possess the same abilities - like seeks like.
During the night, while Althor stays with Tina, the Air Force
Air force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
discovers his Jag star ship and takes it to a military installation. Specialists there examine it, unaware that a telepathic link ties the ship to the Jagernaut mind of its unknown (to them) pilot. As a result, they have no idea their tests are killing Althor.
With the aid of several Caltech students Tina knows, she and Althor infiltrate the military complex and regain the ship. As soon as Althor repairs its damaged systems, he and Tina return to his spacetime
Spacetime
In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single continuum. Spacetime is usually interpreted with space as being three-dimensional and time playing the role of a fourth dimension that is of a different sort from the spatial dimensions...
. They are almost immediately captured by the group that sabotaged Althor's ship, after which they are sold as slaves to his enemies, in particular an Aristo named Kryx Iquar. Althor is stunned to learn that the person who betrayed him was his close personal friend, Ragnar Bloodmark, an influential Skolian admiral who helped raise him. After being held captive and tortured for several days, Althor and Tina escape with the help of his sentient Jag fighter.
In the end, Tina marries Althor, and together they discover the origin of Althor's ancestors, the Raylicans
Ruby empire
The Ruby Empire is an ancient civilization of humans settled on the planet Raylicon in the Saga of the Skolian Empire books by Catherine Asaro.-History:...
, who were a displaced group of Maya
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
from Earth, relocated to the planet Raylicon during an earlier era by unknown aliens.
Context
Although Catch the Lightning is chronologically the last book in the series (to date), the novel was the second of Asaro's fourteen books published in The Saga of the Skolian Empire and is considered a stand alone work which doesn't require familiarity with the other stories. The events take place fifty years after the Radiance War, as described in The Radiant SeasThe Radiant Seas
The Radiant Seas is a novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire series of books by Catherine Asaro. The book continues where Primary Inversion ended and centers on the story of the devastating interstellar Radiance War...
.
Asaro uses the two-part structure of the novel to explore the clash between different cultures, a theme inherent to the genre of planetary romance
Planetary romance
Planetary romance is a type of science fiction or science fantasy story in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds...
as done by authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
and Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Many critics have noted a feminist perspective in her writing. Her first child, David R...
. The main character, Tina Pulivok, is a young woman of the Tzotzil Maya
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
from the Zinacantan
Zinacantan
San Lorenzo Zinacantán is a municipio in the southern part of the Central Chiapas highlands in the Mexican state of Chiapas. About 98% of its population are Tzotzil Maya, an indigenous people with linguistic and cultural ties to other highland Maya peoples.Zinacantán literally means "land of bats"...
village of Nabenchauk on the Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
plateau in southern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Praised for the quality of her prose, Asaro builds the character's background in detail, including the use of scholarly texts and permission to include the translation of a Zincanteco poem from a Smithsonian treatise.
Tina is already experiencing the culture shock
Culture shock
Culture shock is the anxiety, feelings of frustration, alienation and anger that may occur when a person is emplaced in a new culture.One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. Culture shock can be described as consisting of one or more distinct phases...
of living in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
after growing up in the Chiapas Highlands
Chiapas highlands
The region of the Chiapas Highlands is located in Chiapas, the southern-most state of Mexico.Many pre-Columbian Maya civilization sites are located in these highlands....
, an idea further explored in "Ave de Paso,” a short story by Asaro which appeared in Fantasy: the Best of 2001. Althor is dealing with the clash between his universe and 1980s Los Angeles, which heightens the contrast between his and Tina's backgrounds, a conflict enhanced by his cybernetic differences from a normal human being. In the second half of the novel, when Tina travels to Althor's universe and time, the differences in their backgrounds become more pronounced, and the resolution of those differences within the context of the adventure forms a prominent theme of the novel. By using alien settings to consider what it means to be different, Asaro looks at conflicts inherent in different cultures and peoples on our own world.
Other works listed as similar to Catch the Lighting are Nekropolis by Maureen F. McHugh
Maureen F. McHugh
Maureen F. McHugh is a science fiction and fantasy writer.Her first published story appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1989. Since then, she has written four novels and over twenty short stories. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang , was nominated for both the Hugo and the...
, Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold is an American author of science fiction and fantasy works. Bujold is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo...
, Master of Intrigue by Mary Ann Steele, Venus
Venus (novel)
Venus is a science fiction novel by Ben Bova, part of the Grand Tour novel series and first published in the year 2000. The story follows Van Humphries, the son of the ruthless tycoon Martin Humphries, and his experiences on Venus.- Plot summary :...
by Ben Bova
Ben Bova
Benjamin William Bova is an American science-fiction author and editor. He is the recipient of six Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor for his work at Analog Science Fiction in the 1970's.-Personal life:...
and Heart of the Betrayed by Angela Verdenius.
Raylicon and origins of the saga
Catch the Lightning is the Skolian book that most features the world Raylicon, ancient home of the "lost children," those humans taken from Earth thousands of years ago and stranded on Raylicon. The mystery of why a starfaring species moved humans to a dying world and then disappeared, leaving nothing behind but the wreckage of starships, is a central question of the saga. The displaced humans eventually conquer space flight and raise the interstellar Ruby Empire. Built with only partially understood technology, it falls three centuries later, and it takes another four thousand years for the Raylicans to regain the stars. (The Radiant SeasThe Radiant Seas
The Radiant Seas is a novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire series of books by Catherine Asaro. The book continues where Primary Inversion ended and centers on the story of the devastating interstellar Radiance War...
, 1999) During that time, the colonies on other worlds are stranded, and those that survive lose their technology, becoming lost worlds
Lost World (genre)
The Lost World literary genre is a fantasy or science fiction genre that involves the discovery of a new world out of time, place, or both. It began as a subgenre of the late-Victorian imperial romance and remains popular to this day....
. Raylicon is the culture that survives, and in modern times the mysterious ruins of the Ruby Empire exist side by side with the modern cities of the Skolian Imperialate. The chapters set on Raylicon, which come late in the book, offer the most detail in the saga about the culture and history of world that originated both the Skolians
Saga of the Skolian Empire
The Saga of the Skolian Empire, informally called the Skolian Saga or Tales of the Ruby Dynasty, is a series of science fiction novels, novelettes and novellas by Catherine Asaro, revolving around characters from an interstellar empire known as the Skolian Empire and their power struggle with the...
and their enemies, the Eubian Concord
Eubians
The Eubians refers to the fictional people of the Eubian Concord in the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. They are often portrayed as antagonists in those novels, enemy to the rivaling Skolian Empire....
, aka the Trader Empire
Eubians
The Eubians refers to the fictional people of the Eubian Concord in the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. They are often portrayed as antagonists in those novels, enemy to the rivaling Skolian Empire....
.
Mathematical and Physical themes
Asaro, a theoretical physicist, frames the science fictional elements of the story with mathematical concepts. The alternate universe Althor slips into when his ship malfunctions is a fictional extrapolation of Riemann sheets and branch pointBranch point
In the mathematical field of complex analysis, a branch point of a multi-valued function is a point such that the function is discontinuous when going around an arbitrarily small circuit around this point...
s from complex analysis
Complex analysis
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is useful in many branches of mathematics, including number theory and applied mathematics; as well as in physics,...
. The concepts derive from an extension of special relativity
Special relativity
Special relativity is the physical theory of measurement in an inertial frame of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies".It generalizes Galileo's...
into the complex plane
Complex plane
In mathematics, the complex plane or z-plane is a geometric representation of the complex numbers established by the real axis and the orthogonal imaginary axis...
, as described in a paper Asaro published in the American Journal of Physics
American Journal of Physics
The American Journal of Physics is a monthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Institute of Physics. The editor is Jan Tobochnik of Kalamazoo College.-Aims and scope:...
. She also uses concepts of Hilbert spaces in sequences of Catch the Lighting, as detailed in the essay at the end of her book, Spherical Harmonic
Spherical Harmonic
Spherical Harmonic is a science fiction novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. It tells the story of Dyhianna Selei , the Ruby Pharaoh of the Skolian Imperialate, as she strives to reform her government and reunite her family in the aftermath of a devastating interstellar...
.
Asaro's Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winning novella, "The Spacetime Pool" further uses the ideas of Riemann sheets and branch points to structure the story.
Genre splitting
As with several of Asaro's other works, Catch the Lightning has stirred both praise and controversy due to its mix of romance with hard science fictionHard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
.
The book won the Sapphire Award for best Science Fiction Romance of 1998 and has been described as an example of the best in science fiction romance literature, along with works by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold is an American author of science fiction and fantasy works. Bujold is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo...
, Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley is a distinguished author of fantasy and children's books who has written sixteen books to date. Her latest book Pegasus was published in 2010...
, Sharon Shinn
Sharon Shinn
Sharon Shinn is an American novelist who writes combining aspects of fantasy, science fiction and romance. She has published more than a dozen novels for adult and young adult readers. She works as a journalist in St. Louis, Missouri and is a graduate of Northwestern University.Sharon is a...
, Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Caroline Stevermer
Caroline Stevermer is a writer of young adult fantasy novels and shorter works. She is best known for two series of historical fantasy novels.With Patricia C...
, Emma Bull
Emma Bull
Emma Bull is a science fiction and fantasy author whose best-known novel is War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of urban fantasy. She has participated in Terri Windling's Borderland shared universe, which is the setting of her 1994 novel Finder...
, Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes "Misty" Lackey is a best-selling American author of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar...
, Anne McCaffrey
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
, Barbara Hambly
Barbara Hambly
Barbara Hambly is an award-winning and prolific American novelist and screenwriter within the genres of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction...
, Joanne Bertin
Joanne Bertin
Joanne Bertin was born in 1953 in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, USA. She writes science fiction/fantasy novels in addition to being employed...
, Patricia Briggs
Patricia Briggs
Patricia Briggs is an American author, well-known for the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series. Briggs was born in Butte, Montana, and lived in various cities in the Pacific Northwest...
, Patricia A. McKillip
Patricia A. McKillip
Patricia Anne McKillip is an American author of fantasy and science fiction novels. Her novels have been winners of the World Fantasy Award, Locus Award and Mythopoeic Award. In 2008, she was a recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement...
, Lisanne Norman
Lisanne Norman
Lisanne Norman is a science fiction author. She is best known as the author of The Sholan Alliance series...
and Elizabeth Marie Pope
Elizabeth Marie Pope
Elizabeth Marie Pope was an author specializing in Elizabethan England and the works of John Milton and William Shakespeare.Elizabeth Marie Pope was born on May 1, 1917 in Washington, D.C., to Christopher Herman Pope and Florence Anna Thompson Pope. In 1940, she received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr...
.
Asaro has been accepting of the term romance despite the controversy and has expressed pleased surprise that her works attracted the interest of the romance community.